Today is my last day of teaching classes. It feels strange. While I am sad to be leaving this place where I have loved working these past thirteen years, I am excited and anxious to begin the next phase of life's journey. During an advisement session with our accountant last week, the director of the organization stopped by to meet us. As he was leaving he said to me, "Congratulations! This is a great achievement." I teared up. I hadn't quite thought of retirement as an achievement. I realized he meant the achievement was arriving at this moment after a full life time of working outside the home. It moved me. I simply had not been expecting this transition period to be so emotional. I must have been in denial up until now.
Or, perhaps, I had just become really good at living in the moment. And now the moment is in the leaving and reimagining of the rest of my life!
I had settled into my office to grade papers before my last class was to begin when suddenly a couple of colleagues called out to me to hurry to their office. I dropped everything and ran to them worried something was wrong. There, on a light post directly outside the window, perched a large hawk. He sat straight up looking around as if he owned the place, confident and unafraid of humans in the area. We all gasped out loud about him and wondered at his magnificence. We stood around watching and observing, chatting excitedly. One of my colleagues took a photograph and as we explored how to upload it to Twitter, just like that, the hawk took off and flew away swooping low to the ground and then up into the sky. It was then that I noticed his brilliant red-tail. "It is a red-tail!" I exclaimed.
My colleague looked at me with a smile. "I feel this is like a lucky moment," she said. I agreed. "Yes," I observed, "I think it is very auspicious. I looked up what a hawk might represent in Native American culture. It read: Hawks are often seen as a symbol of power in Native American cultures. Like eagles, they are symbols of courage and strength. At another website they described the meaning and symbolism of the hawk as: Hawk is often a messenger from Angels, Devas and the Divine. He signals a time in your life when you need to focus on what's ahead and prepare for a leadership role. Your global vision is a potent helpmate in this. Just as the Hawk, you are ready to fly higher than ever before.
Very auspicious indeed, I thought. Time to write down my third "Lucky luck!"
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